Failing spectacularly in the games that mattered last year raise questions, says our fans' columnist

Tough, gruelling, unrelenting – welcome back to the Championship, Cardiff City Football Club!

Only eight games more than the teams in the Premier League play, but those extra matches mean more midweek fixtures and three in certain seven day periods.

We are certainly not playing against the standard of opposition we met last season but the number of games in total make this division a very difficult one to get out of.

We have done it before and the squad we have this time around is arguably better than the Championship winning side of 2012/13.

I have very little doubt in my mind that if Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can strengthen our defence and bring in another quality wide player with genuine pace then we will have the best squad in the division.

Many bookmakers have installed the Bluebirds as favourites for the title, I can understand why because of the depth of quality we have.

But the question is still there... do we have the right manager to succeed in this league?

I really do hope that Ole and his coaches are a success but I would be a fibber if I said I have no reservations about them.

Ole came in last year against a backdrop of much publicised problems that were dominating the headlines on the back pages.

Whether Ole knew the extent of views around the club, and not just inside it, is something probably only he would know. But I suspect he didn’t.

The club was fractured beyond and I don’t believe any manager would have been able to stop the ship from sinking last season. The problems were deep rooted and I had an amount of sympathy for whoever got the job at the time.

We have had a summer of rebuilding if you like, the manager has brought in players that he identified would overcome our goal-shy striking problems of last season.

I am excited by the signings of Macheda and Le Fondre and on paper Javi Guerra looks a shrewd piece of business.

So why do I still question whether Ole is the right man?

Because of his team selections in certain games last season and some of the tactics employed. We were a Jekyll and Hyde team under the likeable Norwegian, giving good accounts of ourselves at Man City, Spurs and Everton, but looking truly shambolic against Palace, Hull and Sunderland.

City had no right to beat any team last season, we were the newcomers in town and we had to prove our wort, but in the fancied games we didn’t just fail ... we got it spectacularly wrong.

That is what is putting doubt in my mind.

Maybe with a pre-season with the squad and having time to put over to the players the style he wishes our team to play we will see exactly what Ole was trying to achieve last season.

Back then he had a squad of players who were used to playing in way that was alien to what they were suddenly being asked to under the new gaffer.

The best bit of business of the summer so far is not that of a player sold or bought but that the club have held on to the best goalkeeper of the season last year, David Marshall.

The shot stopper will gain us valuable points again this year if we still have him at the end of this transfer window.

I am going to Blackburn tonight and will be pleased if we can come away with a point, this City team will score goals but until we strengthen the back line unfortunately we will concede just as many I suspect.

Good luck to the Ole and the team, not just for tonight but for the campaign ahead. The one thing you can rely on is that you have our support from the terraces and we will be there in large numbers wherever and whenever we play.

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